Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time

Redefining our traditional understanding of the New Deal, Fear Itself finally examines this pivotal American era through a sweeping international lens that juxtaposes a struggling democracy with enticing ideologies like Fascism and Communism. Ira Katznelson, "a towering figure in the study of American and European history" (Cornel West), boldly asserts that, during the 1930s and 1940s, American democracy was rescued yet distorted by a unified band of southern lawmakers who safeguarded racial segregation as they built a new national state to manage capitalism and assert global power.

Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind.

History Decoded: The Ten Greatest Conspiracies of All Time

Adapted from Decoded, Meltzer's hit show on the History network, History Decoded explores many fascinating and unexplained questions. Is Fort Knox empty? Why was Hitler so intent on capturing the Roman "Spear of Destiny"? What's the government hiding in Area 51? Where did the Confederacy's $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? Did Lee Harvey Oswald really act alone?

The Few: The American "Knights of the Air" Who Risked Everything to Fight in the Battle of Britain

World War II had been raging for nearly a year. Hitler was now planning an invasion of England to seal Europe's fate. Though the United States was still neutral, a few Americans decided they couldn't remain on the sidelines. They joined Britain's Royal Air Force - with the future of civilization hanging in the balance. The Few tells the dramatic story of these Americans who defied their own country's neutrality laws and risked their very citizenship to fight side-by-side with England's finest pilots.

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

Every year, the average American eats 33 pounds of cheese (triple what we ate in 1970) and 70 pounds of sugar (about 22 teaspoons a day). We ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt a day, double the recommended amount, and almost none of that comes from the shakers on our table. It comes from processed food. It’s no wonder, then, that one in three adults, and one in five kids, is clinically obese.

Salt: A World History

So much of our human body is made up of salt that we'd be dead without it. The fine balance of nature, the trade of salt as a currency of many nations and empires, the theme of a popular Shakespearean play...Salt is best selling author Mark Kurlansky's story of the only rock we eat.

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the 20th century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Now available for the first time in unabridged audio, the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime is brought to life by acclaimed narrator Scott Brick.

Beyond Valor: World War II's Ranger and Airborne Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat

Previous books have promised to describe the combat experience of the World War II GI, but there has never been a book like Patrick O'Donnell's Beyond Valor. Here is the first combat history of the war in Europe in the words of the men themselves, and perhaps the most honest and brutal account of combat possible.

In Defense of Food

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused, complicated, and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists-all of whom have much to gain from our dietary confusion.

The Botany of Desire

Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers' genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship.

American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic

American Pain chronicles the rise and fall of this game-changing pill mill and how it helped tip the nation into its current opioid crisis. The narrative, which swings back and forth between Florida and Kentucky, is populated by a diverse cast of characters.

Paranoia: A Novel

Adam Cassidy is twenty-six and a low level employee at a high-tech corporation who hates his job. When he manipulates the system to do something nice for a friend, he finds himself charged with a crime. Corporate Security gives him a choice: prison or become a spy in the headquarters of their chief competitor, Trion Systems.

Absolute Power

In a heavily guarded mansion in a posh Virginia suburb, a man and a woman start to make love, trapping a burglar behind a secret wall. Then the passion turns deadly, and the witness is running into the night - because what he has just seen is a brutal slaying involving the president of the United States.

The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery

In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs - including such future luminaries as Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Singer, Victor Dowd, Art Kane, and Jack Masey - landed in France to conduct a secret mission. Armed with truckloads of inflatable tanks, a massive collection of sound-effects records, and more than a few tricks up their sleeves, their job was to create a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German Army as their audience.

Blue Like Jazz: Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.

Becoming Quinn: Jonathan Quinn Series Prequel

Meet Jake Oliver. The day will come when he's one of the best cleaners in the business, a man skilled at making bodies disappear. At the moment, however, he's a 22 year old rookie cop, unaware his life is about to change. In a burning barn a body is found--and the fire isn't the cause of death. The detectives working the case have a pretty good idea about what went down. But Officer Oliver thinks it's something else entirely, and pursues a truth others would prefer remain hidden - others who will go to extreme lengths to keep him quiet.

Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart

Extraordinary things happen when we harness the power of both the brain and the heart. Growing up in the high desert of California, Jim Doty was poor, living with an alcoholic father and a mother chronically depressed and paralyzed by a stroke. Today he is the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, of which the Dalai Lama is a founding benefactor.

Sideways

Sideways is the story of two friends, Miles and Jack, going away together for the last time to steep themselves in everything that makes it good to be young and single: pinot, putting, and prowling bars. In the week before Jack plans to marry, the pair heads out from Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez wine country.

Food: A Cultural Culinary History

Eating is an indispensable human activity. As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man."

The Inner Circle

When Clementine Kaye, archivist Beecher White's first childhood crush, shows up at the National Archives asking for his help, Beecher tries to impress her by showing her the secret vault where the president of the United States privately reviews classified documents. They accidentally happen upon a priceless artifact - and find themselves suddenly entangled in a web of deception, conspiracy, and murder.

The Icarus Agenda

Colorado Congressman Evan Kendrick is trying to live out his term of office quietly—when a political mole reveals to the world Kendrick's deepest secret: that Kendrick was the anonymous man in Masqar, the man who courageously freed the hostage held in the American embassy by Arab terrorists; the unknown hero who performed an act of outrageous daring then silently disappeared. Now, suddenly, Kendrick is a living target pursued by the terrorists he outwitted.

You're Next

Mike Wingate had a rough childhood — he was abandoned at a playground at four years old and raised in foster care. No one ever came to claim him, and he has only a few, fragmented memories of his parents. Now, as an adult, Mike is finally living the life he had always wanted — he’s happily married to Annabel, the woman of his dreams; they have a precocious eight-year-old daughter, Kat.

The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality

Over the past few decades, a handful of scientists have been racing to explain a disturbing aspect of our universe: only four percent of it consists of the matter that makes up you, me, our books, and every star and planet. The rest is completely unknown. Richard Panek tells the dramatic story of the quest to find this “dark” matter and an even more bizarre substance called “dark energy”. This is perhaps the greatest mystery in all of science, and solving it will bring fame, funding, and certainly a Nobel Prize.

The Tin Collectors

L.A. police detective Shane Scully comes under investigation by Internal Affairs (derisively known as "the tin collectors") after he kills his ex-partner who was one of the mayor's bodyguards. Temporarily reassigned, so that he can remain under the department's watchful eye, Scully finds that more than his badge is at stake when he is set up to take the rap in a deadly plot of corruption and conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of the LAPD.

Publisher's Summary

No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller is exactly what the title promises. This is more than another book about the Bernie Madoff scandal, this is a fast-paced, blow-by-blow, true-crime story that you have to hear to believe. In a true David and Goliath tale, the underdog number cruncher uncovers the largest financial fraud in history, and has to fight everything and everyone in the system to bring it down. Harry Markopolos and his team of financial sleuths tell first-hand how they cracked Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme yet, amazingly, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) refused to hear the truth for nearly 10 years. Told from the perspective of the ultimate whistleblower in modern corporate memory, No One Would Listen is bound to be the definitive narrative of this scandal.

This special edition includes an exclusive 10th chapter available only in audio, featuring testimony from three victims of the Madoff scheme who came in to the Audible studios to share their shocking and heartbreaking stories. In addition, David Kotz, the Inspector General of the SEC, speaks candidly about his investigation. Throughout the audiobook, you’ll also hear scathing commentary from congressional leaders on the blatant failures of the commission. No One Would Listen is more than an audiobook. It's a lasting audio testament to the largest white-collar crime in history.

SEC DisclaimerThe Securities and Exchange Commission disclaims responsibility for any private publication or statement of any SEC employee or Commissioner. This audiobook expresses the author's views and does not necessarily reflect those of the Commission, the Commissioners, or other members of the staff.

I found both the book and the audio to be so compelling that I looked for opportunities to do other things while I listened. This financial thriller was so good that I finally gave up trying to do anything else and just sat down with my iPod to listen.

No One Would Listen is the story of Markopolos and three others, who figured out as early as 1999 that the highly respected Bernie Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, ultimately cheating investors out of more than 60 billion dollars. The fascinating thing about his story is that on three different occasions, in 2000, 2001, and again in 2005, Markopolos provided detailed documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proving his case against Madoff. Each time Markopolos was ignored.

Markopolos tells how he was frightened by the possibility that either the mob or, after Madoff was arrested in December 2008, the federal government would attempt to murder him because of what he knew. The reader, in his or her more rational mindset, would be right to believe that Markopolos might have exaggerated this danger to himself. But then again, when either billions of dollars are involved (in the case of the mob) or massive embarrassment is involved (in the case of the S.E.C.), one may excuse Mr. Markopolos for his paranoia.

For those who like to read either finance or thrillers, No One Would Listen is the perfect amalgamation. Listening to the audio version is especially a luxury, with Scott Brick doing a masterful job of reading the story. The audio editors must have thought it would be helpful to have other readers handle the email portions. These portions, however, I found amateurish and distracting. However, near the end of the book, the audio book also includes the scathing comments by Rep. Gary Ackerman (in his own voice) during the SEC interview at the Madoff-SEC Congressional hearing. This was compelling after having listened to the Markopolos story.

Everyone knows what a ?*&% / Bernie Madoff was, but how many people know that most of the damage he did could have been prevented by a simple phone call from the SEC to verify his trades several years before, and some 55 billion dollars before, his collapse? The incompetence of the SEC is legend. They simply refused to even consider so much as asking a question about the legality of what Madoff was doing. The question that comes to my mind is what WERE they doing with their time, if it wasn't investigating things like this? Wasn't that their job description? Although Madoff was the biggest fish, there were many other crooks that they also ignored. Maybe a better word would be 'protected' because that is what they were doing, protecting the bad guys from their investors - the exact opposite of what they had been hired to do.

Having once been Securities licensed myself, this book was all the more interesting to me. I know a little of what goes on in the world of finance, and in fact was burned myself to the point that I just don't want anything to do with it. That is probably not a good place to be either, but it is tough to have some dishonest person effect the quality of the rest of your life. Luckily I didn't lose everything as so many of these investors did, but I will be paying for my mistake of trusting someone who seemed so good and who turned out to be a crook for the rest of my life. I wept when I heard the stories of some of these people. Hell is too good a place for people like Bernie Madoff.

This book reads like a novel. The legendary Scott Brick is a fine narrator. There were times throughout the recording that the real voices of participants were heard, which made it so authentic, but also reminded me why most authors don't read their own works. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in finance, or in bringing bad guys to justice. It was ultimately satisfying to see that justice was done. This country owes a huge debt to Harry Markopolos and his team (who were never paid for their work in bringing Madoff down) for hanging in there when it would have been so easy to quit. Thanks to them, the whole SEC is restructured and re-staffed. I hope the people at the SEC today are doing their jobs the way they should be done.

The story of Bernie Madoff's ponzie scheme is truly remarkable. The ability of one guy to single handedly steal billions of dollars from innocent people in broad daylight is an amazing feat, but even more amazing was the ignorance of the SEC, the organization that's sole purpose is to protect investors.

For the first half of the book I was amazed by the way the SEC kept shunning Markopolos' attempts to investigate Madoff's company, but as I listened more I began to understand a little better why they may have responded like they did. Markopolos is just a little too sure of himself, and as the book progressed he began to get annoying. He loved to use "clever" little phrases throughout the book, like "they couldn't find a batter in the batter's box", "they couldn't find a steer in a stampede", "it was like trying to reign in a beehive with a chainlink fence", or "they pay peanuts and wonder why they wound up with so many monkeys". A few of these phrases scattered throughout the book would have been great, but they were used non-stop throughout the book, and I could just visualize Markopolos beaming with pride each time he dropped one, especially when it was to blast the SEC.

If you aren't familiar with this story, this audiobook will be very intriguing to you. The time passed very quickly and the book didn't ever drag on. I just became increasingly annoyed with the author towards the end of the story.

A modern retelling of the Emperor and his obvious nudity that strips away any vestige of one's faith in unrestrained capitalism while questioning why the wolf -- govenment agencies filled with climbers and cronies -- had been entrusted to guard the sheep. It reminds me of Leonard Cohen's Everybody Knows. Since everyone knew this was a fraud is Mr. Markopolos' well documented subtheme, it puzzles me why he has such respect for his royal French friend who raised billions from other members of royalty and then committed suicide: certainly this man long knew he was involved in a massive fraud and rather than doing anything to stop it, continued to raise more and more money to invest with Madoff, shutting his mind to the conclusive evidence Mr. Markopolos presented to him. Isn't this kind of complicity we now see in the headlines about those who knew of the Penn State scandal but let it go on for years and years and years to the tragic detriment of others. The substance of the crime may be different but the greed and cowardice are the same.

A great listen! Scott Brick puts the perfect vocal spin on this true life story of the man who found an emperor with no clothes back in 1999. Sadly, everyone else had blindfolds on. Markopolos rips the SEC apart at least 50 times in this book - it gets a bit old hearing "they couldn't find a steer in a stampede" and similar comparisons over and over again. I didn't care for the real-person email reading, but overall this is a one-of-a-kind story that is about some amazing U.S. history and the power of a government agency to be completely useless.

The book lacks tight editing. It's not a literary masterpiece. But the story is compelling and it accurately describes one of the common environments that allows Ponzi schemes to grow. The book is essentially a warning to all and sundry that the SEC is useless and that the financial industry is full of crooks and sharp practices. Some reviewers here have complained that Harry is annoying and that's probably why people wouldn't listen to him. People always want to blame the messenger. He does come off as a genuine person with his own personality, even a possible dose of paranoia, but the dangers were real, and living with them for years has to change you after awhile. Ponzi schemes thrive because greed, self interest, pride, sociopaths and unjustified trust exist in a completely inadequately regulated financial environment. Is there any way to control them? Why do people fall for them? Why do people run them when they know they will always fail in the end? Why won't regulators do their duty? If you like exploring these sorts of questions you will love this book. It won't give you all the answers, but it gives a few, and the answers it gives are very real.

This isn't a book about how Bernie Madoff pulled off his scheme, his successes and his failures. If this were fiction, Madoff would be a macguffin---a peripheral character to drive the plot of the real story, which is Harry Markopolis' investigation of Madoff and the SEC's ongoing failure to stop him.

Harry Markopolis was tasked by his employers to figure out how Bernie Madoff's strategy could be so successful (so they could imitate it). The more Harry dug, the more he realized that the whole thing had to be a fraud. He brought this to the attention of the SEC, who promptly allowed Madoff to continue right along. This started an 8-year fight in which Markopolis kept learning more about Madoff and kept trying to get the SEC to shut him down...then (after Madoff turned himself in) became Markopolis' crusade for reforming the SEC.

My biggest complaint---and it is a big one---is that Markopolis' autobiography (which is what this is) is very self-congratulatory in tone. He spends a good deal of time telling us about his brilliance and the SEC's incompetence. All in all, I think it could have used trimming, which is why it only gets 3 stars in my book.

I like Scott Brick as a reader in general, and I definitely liked his reading of this book. He did a very good job capturing Markopolis' frustration and snark. At several points, Markopolis and some of his colleagues read their emails themselves....didn't really add much. Several investors gave their first-person testimony at the end of the book...that was interesting, although, it was too much and an edit was needed.

This was my first time listening to a financial thriller. It was informative, & easy to follow. This book is about Bernie" Madoff, a former stockbroker, investment advisor, financier, and white collar criminal. Who created the biggest Ponzi scheme in HISTORY!!! The scheme affected 41 countries and worth $65 BILLION dollars. How the F.C.C. was fore warned time and time again, to become grossly incompetent. And how its still affecting people and companies today.Scott Brick has narrated another good book. Along with the actual characters of the book.

This was a great listen, I cant believe the effort Harry Markopolos went to, to expose Bernie Madoff. The money and potential investors that could have been saved is astounding.That the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to discover the fraud even though they were given this information is incredulous and should be frightening to all investors in this country and abroad. The financial system has still not been fixed and we have a real danger of having another collapse in the near future. This will be the case as long as the only guiding incentive is GREED.

I'm honestly not sure why I even bought this - I have so little knowledge, understanding and interest in the financial markets that I hadn't even heard of this ponzi scheme before - but I loved this audiobook.

I found the story utterly absorbing - the narrator was easy to listen to and the financial products, markets and institutions were explained clearly and in a way that I could follow and understand. I went from a complete lack of interest in the subject matter to being rather sad to reach the end.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Toby

2/2/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Excellent"

Great book. Performance contains some obvious jarring cuts between recording sessions but is otherwise sound

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Mark

Alton, Hampshire, United Kingdom

6/10/10

Overall

"Worthwhile for those with an interest"

A thriller in terms of the effect on the financial markets rather than for heart-stopping action.

For anyone interested in how the largest financial fraud ever succeeded for such a long period of time, this book provides fascinating insight into a small group who uncover the Madoff ponzi scheme and their attempts to bring this to the attention of the SEC so as to have Madoff investigated and the scheme shut down. The aftermath of the scheme is examined including the actual testimonies and the effect on investors.

The story is retold in a fairly dry style which suits the content and does well to avoid an 'I told you so' stance from colouring the material or annoying the audience; isn't likely to entice casual listeners, however if you have a particular interest in financial markets in the aftermath of the 'credit crunch' debacle, you'll enjoy it.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

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